Myself and a few others will be riding to HOG HILL this sunday to watch FABIO race here is the map, I aim to get to the circuit at around 11am so will be leaving the Richmond area at 9am. Please feel free to join us anywhere along this route.

The second place obtained by Alessandro Petacchi in the 11th stage of Tour de France (Sisteron-Bourg les Valence, 184,5 km) is not bitter, instead it leaves on his shoulder the green jersey of leader of the points standing. Lampre-Farnese’s cyclist crossed the finish line in 2nd position behind Cavendish (3rd Farrar), who won a chaotic sprint. Thanks to the 30 points of the second place and considering the 19 points obtained by Hushovd (7th in the stage), Petacchi is the new leader of the points standing with 161 points (Hushovd 157). Andy Schleck is stil the leader of the overall standing. The stage was characterized by a three men breakway (Auge, Geslin and Benitez the protagonists), caught by the bunch before the hot final kilometers during which the sprinters’ team took the head of the race.Lampre-Farnese began to work in support of Petacchi at 10 km to go: for first it was Malori’s turn, then Da Dalto’s one, then Lorenzetto and Bole led the bunch in the last 2 km and finally Hondo drove Petacchi to the final 250 mt. Ale-Jet left Hondo’s stream as soon as he saw Cavendish anticipating the beginning of the sprint, and so he tried a recovery that anyway didn’t allow him to overtake the British sprinter. “Cavendish and his team performed a perfect sprint: it was very difficult to precede them, even if Lampre-Farnese’s work was very good – Petacchi commented – I’m sorry I didn’twin, but I’m happy for the conquering of the green jersey: it’s a beautiful prize for my team mates effort and I’ll try to keep it with me as long as possible”. “Our riders performed in a good way the roles we had decided during this morning briefing – Piovani, Lampre-Farnese’s sport director, said – Maybe in the last bend we lost some positions, but, also thanks to Hondo’s skill, Petacchi could perform the sprint in the best way. Cavendish’s sprint was very long, Alessandro tried the recovery but he could not reach him. This green jersey is a pride for us”.

Oh, Stelvio! It’s this huge, beautiful Alpine pass, the highest paved road in Italy, with 39 hairpin bends and views to die for. It’s a beast of a climb, totally legendary among drivers and cyclists – where better to have the penultimate, definitive, stage of the Giro Donne?

In theory there was everything to play for in this stage – Mara Abbott, the super-climber from Team USA was only 19 seconds ahead of HTC’s Judith Arndt, 1’05” from World Champion Tatiana Guderzo, 1’38” from cycling genius Marianne Vos and 1’41” from last year’s winner Claudia Häusler. But in reality, only Cervélo’s Emma Pooley can touch Mara in the mountains – and with Emma 6’22” down on GC, after various bits of bad luck, including crashing in Stage 2 and puncturing in Stage 7, it was pretty clear that barring some terrible luck of her own, Mara would end the day in the maglia rosa.

But there was still the stage to win – and with 2 “warm-up” climbs before they even hit the bottom of the Stelvio, this would be the toughest stage yet in a race that’s nothing if not hard.

The race started with 2 laps in Livigno, before hitting the climbs at Trepalle and Foscagno. Pooley attacked on th climbs, to grab the remaining Mountains points (she’d started the day on equal points with Abbott, and wanted that green jersey, if not the stage) – but she was dropped on the descent out of Foscagno, and when the front group, with all the favourites, started the huge climb of the Stelvio, she was a few minutes back.

But this is Emma Pooley, and she is a huge climbing star. With the help of team-mate Carla Ryan, she caught the group, and immediately attacked, taking off into the distance, with only Mara Abbott able to follow her. Mara and Emms duelled all the way to the top, while behind them, Arndt and Guderzo fought hard for the 2nd place in the GC – until with 2km to go, Mara gave it her all and attacked one last time – and this time Emma couldn’t follow.

Mara solo-ed up to victory, and barring disasters on Stage 10, to win the overall race. Arndt ended up in 3rd spot on the stage, with Guderzo only 7 seconds behind her (and that was a stallr performance from those two). Vos ended up losing 7’44”, but she’s the first to admit she’s not a pure climber, and ended the day with the Points and the Best Young Rider jersey.

So one more stage to go – a sprint stage – and it’ll be hard and fast, with all those teams that haven’t won a stage taking this one last chance – and chapeau to all the sprinters who got over the mountains! This isn’t one of those racers like the Giro or the Vuelta, where the sprinters drop out once they start going uphill! These girls are hardcore!

There’s a great profile of Mara Abbott here, by Cicloweb, who’ve been the best source of news for the whole race – and if you don’t beleive me that this is the most beautiful race out there, check out CJ Farquharson’s photos of the stage. She takes the greatest photos of women’s racing (you’ll have seen them if you ever look at the women’s racing reports on the cycling websites, when they bother) – check out her site, and have the races come alive!

As ever, if you have any questions, you can ask me on twitter – and thanks again to Simon for blog-space – I appreciate it!

Under the wonderful banner of LAMBSTRONG my good friends Ian and Nick are organising a big group ride on the 29th August if anyone would like to join in and ride with a great bunch of people. Both of them can be contacted through twitter or if you don’t use twitter please feel free to email me and I’ll pass on your details. I’ll pass you over to Ian to explain the details.

Ever wondered what your twitter friends really looked like? Want to know if they used the best picture they had of themselves for their avatar? Or do you just fancy a ride with some nice people? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then YOU are invited to come and ride the first Gran Fondo Lambstrong. It’ll be a 110-ish km social ride around the rolling countryside of leicestershire on sunday 29th august – that’s bank holiday weekend. The ride isn’t a sportif or a race, just a social gathering to enjoy some good riding, good company and a beer and lunch afterwards. The plan is this: we’ll meet at the griffin inn in swithland where we’ll be able to park up and (if i can arrange it) use the facilities. We’ll then ride out through the rolling countryside of england’s smallest county, rutland and around england’s largest man-made lake. we’ll stop for coffee and a cake at the cafe on it shore (right next to rutland cycling) before heading back. there will be plenty of chances for more stops or to cut the ride short if you don’t fancy the whole thing. Leicestershire was chosen for both its central location and because the hills shouldn’t be too much for anyone. There is an etape hotel pretty close-by where a couple of people are planning on staying the night before. It is also leicester’s sky-ride the following day if anyone fancies hanging around for that… We’ll finish the ride back at the pub in time for their excellent sunday lunch. i’ll book tables in advance once we know who is coming. There will be no entry fee, no marshalls, no support, no timing chips, no attitude. there will be decent food, stylish riding and sunshine* get in touch on twitter if you fancy it.ian and nick

The 7th stage of Tour de France (Tournus-Station des Rousses, 165,5 km) had just begun and Danilo Hondo was already in the breakaway born thanks to the attack by Pineau. With them, there were also Knees, Dumoulin and Perez and they all pedalled in harmony getting a top advantage of 9’ on the bunch, gap that allowed Hondo and Pineau, the last to surrender, to be in the head of the race until the early kilometres of the last climb to the arrival. Behind the attackers, hard battle with an attack by Voeckler at the beginning of the Col de la Crix de la Serra, action joined by Cunego too and by some other riders (including Chavanel and Garate). When this group reached the duo Hondo-Pineau, Chavanel attacked and, despite the efforts of the other cyclists (Cunego tried twice to chase him) he reached lonely the arrival. Cunego, after having tried to join Chavanel, saved in the last meters his energies and crossed the finish line in 43rd position at 3’07” to the winner, who’s also the new yellow jersey. The leadership of the overall standing changed and now the yellow jersey is Chavanel.

“I knew that this stage was a good chance for me to trying to get a good result, so when I Voeckler attacked I understand that it was the good moment for escape from the bunch – Cunego explained – Then, I tried to attack but every time my opponents rejoined me and then, when Chavanel performed his action, I was not so brilliant any more. Tomorrow the stage with Morzine arrival will be very tough, also because the top riders will battle for the yellow jersey: if it won’t be possible to perform some attack there, I’ll try again in the next stages knowing that my fit will increase. I need to decrease the disappointment for today stage with a good performance”.

This is the comment by sport director Piovani: “This morning Hondo told me that Pineau would have attack and so he did: Hondo was paying attention to him and he could get into the breakaway. Danilo’s target was going on as much as possible in order to help later Cunego on the last climb: when he was joined by Damiano, Hondo supported him for two kilometres, but Chavanel was no more reachable”.

PLEASE HEAD OVER TO EBAY AND SUPPORT MY FRIEND MONA AS SHE TRIES TO RAISE MONEY FOR RIGHT TO PLAY.

100% of proceeds go to Right To Play!

This t-shirt was made as a joke on the wordplay Livestrong/Lambstrong, as a good friend of mines surname is ‘Lamb’. To understand it completely you would have to know everyone involved – but there is no harm meant to anyone, and Mr Lamb and everyone else involved is very happy to see this being used to raise money for Right To Play.